Saturday, October 3, 2009

Generation Gap

My mother is always pointing out the differences in raising children now versus when she was raising us. First there was the breast feeding thing. When I was born apparently it wasn't the "in" thing to breast feed. The popular train of thought was that formula was much better for your baby so you only breast fed if you couldn't afford formula. (At least that's what she likes to tell me when I yell at her for not even attempting to breast feed me). Another example would be that they gave their babies solid food from a very early age. I believe my mother was giving my brother rice cereal at 10 days old. So she continuously laughs at me when I tell her I am waiting until The Girl is around 6 months old to give her solids.

Well The Girl is now 5 1/2 months old and as I plan on making her baby food I went out today and bought the ice cube trays, the blender thing I plan on using to puree her food, a steamer etc. I also bought a box of organic rice cereal. The Boy HATED rice cereal, but we have shown that he is a little wacky when it comes to food so perhaps this was just the start of his food life. So today when my mother was holding The Girl and she was chewing on her fist like it was going out of style I wasn't surprised when my mother told me she was acting like she hadn't eaten in a year. (She had finished nursing about an hour earlier, and you all have seen pictures, my child is NOT starving). So I decided to humor her and told her I would give The Girl a bit of rice cereal. She was close enough to six months and what harm can a little rice cereal bring? So I fired up the video camera and the regular camera, got some pumped breast milk and mixed it up.

It appears she feels about rice cereal like her brother did. She wasn't sure what that disgusting stuff was that I was putting in her mouth. She made the most hysterical faces. And this is a girl who ALWAYS smiles. And there was no getting her to smile for either of the cameras. She didn't cry or fuss, but she also didn't seem to love it. And then about 10 minutes later as my mother was holding her she hiccuped and then barfed up everything she had just eaten. I found the entire situation hysterical. Behold my daughter and her first experience with rice cereal.
Perhaps we should try something else first? Or do I stick with the rice cereal? Maybe a nice little applesauce? Perhaps some sweet potatoes? Or even some oatmeal (that's what The Boy preferred). Tell me internet...why is it that we have to start out with rice cereal?

5 comments:

GIsen said...

No one says you have to start with rice cereal.I think that it's just the easiest thing to add to the bottle.
I'm curious as to why 6 months is the majical number for introducing solids. From what I understand babies are all different when it comes to readiness for milestones.Why 6 months?

A site that might be of interest to you is babyledweaning.com.I've often questioned the need to make ones own baby food when quality time is so limited for working moms.

Dresden said...

we have the same mother!!! ha ha ha!!!

(right down to the silly notion that every parenting choice I make is opposite of what she did and I constantly baffle her! Breastfeeding, cloth diapers, delayed solids??? how savage of me!)

she is sooooo cute! Try a bit of banana and make sure you film her reaction!!

Anonymous said...

Dude. Both of my boys started on bananas. And they both still love them until this day.

Yellzer said...

My mother seems to understand the reasons we (my sisters and I) do things differently today, it's my former mother-in-law that snickers at everything I (and her new daughter-in-law) do. I think most woman raised in the 70's/80's can relate to this generation gap with their mothers. But it's always nice to hear I'm not the only one experiencing it.

Is The Girl getting bottles at all, like at daycare? If so start by putting the tiniest amount of rice cereal in her bottles to get her use to the flavor rather than sitting down to a big ol' bowl of it. Just not too much or it will clog the nipple. I almost always mixed another flavor (carrots or some other veggie) in to the rice mix when I sat E down to a bowl. Seemed to help him choke it down. Good luck!

Carey said...

"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) acknowledges that there are no "strict" age guidelines on introducing solid foods to your baby. However, the AAP, along with the CDC and the WHO do recommend that you offer nothing but breast milk and/or formula until you baby is at least 6 months old.

This ensures optimal nutritional exposure and may stave off food allergies amongst other issues. Further studies have shown that an infant's gastrointestinal tract has not or may not have matured enough to properly digest/utilize solid foods until around 6-8 months old."

From http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
a great site - recipes, etc.

I think we introduced close to 6 months for all three of ours. In all honesty, we could have waited longer, but it was our own desires that wanted them to try food! :)